Engagement Story -- Paris 2018

Our Paris trip!! Got engaged to my best friend and my partner in life!! Here’s how our engagement story. So Chaya is getting her PhD in Race Politics at Princeton Univ. So I knew I wanted to take her to a place in Paris where James Baldwin use to study and write. I did some research online and found this neighborhood called St. Germaine. I come to find out that Duke Ellington also frequented this neighborhood!! I knew this would be the perfect place to propose; the intersection of our passions, Jazz and Race Relations. So while I was on tour with Marquis Hill’s Blacktet, we had a couple days off in Paris. Chaya and I were sight-seeing and visited the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and all the best sites. At the end of our day, we took an Uber to this cafe called Cafe Tournon (where James Baldwin and Duke both hung out), and I made sure to sit outside. (It was cold but not raining thank god). I asked Marquis and the band if he could show up at the cafe and surprise her with a Duke Ellington composition. They arrived exactly on time and surprised the hell out of her. That’s when I got on one knee and proposed!! She said yes.